Wernicke's cramp is painful psychogenic muscle cramp precipitated by anxiety or fear[1]. The condition was first described by the notable GermanneurologistCarl Wernicke in his seminal work Ein Fall von Crampus-Neurose[2].

Wernicke discovered the syndrome though his work with a patient known as Gerda S. who had an acute fear of pencil shavings which had a deleterious affect on her work as a clerk in the German electronics company Siemens. He achieved a partial cure through the use of high-frequency low-voltage signal applied to the temples which he demonstrated in a lecture at the University of Wrocław in May 1904[3].